Ana Carolina Ferreira de Albuquerque
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José Walkimar de Mesquita Carneiro
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Fernando Martins dos Santos Junior
The properties of natural products, including their biological and pharmacological activities, are directly correlated with their chemical structures. Thus, a correct structural characterization of these compounds is a crucial step to the understanding of their biological activities. However, despite the recent advances in spectroscopic techniques, structural studies of natural products can be challenging. This way, theoretical calculations of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) parameters (such as chemical shifts and coupling constants) have proven to be a powerful and low-cost tool for the aid to experimental techniques traditionally used for the structural characterization of natural products. One of the several applications of quantum-mechanical calculations of NMR parameters is the study of tautomerism. Since chemical shifts are sensitive to the tautomeric equilibrium, this technique can provide crucial informations. In this work, it was applied a protocol for theoretical calculations of ¹³C chemical shifts in order to study the tautomerism of the natural product 7-epi-clusianone, isolated from Rheedia gardneriana. This protocol consists in a Monte Carlo conformational search, followed by geometry optimization and shielding tensors calculations, both using a density functional level of theory. After comparison of theoretical and experimental data, it was possible to confirm the two tautomers present in equilibrium in the experimental solution. Furthermore, this study highlights how this theoretical protocol can be an effective method in identifying the preferred tautomeric form in solution.